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Nicki Minaj
Onika Tanya Maraj better known by her stage name '''Nicki Minaj '''is an American rapper, singer, and actress. She was born on December 8, 1982 in Saint James, Trinidad and Tobago but raised in Jamaica, Queens, New York. Minaj received public attention after relasing the mixtapes ''Playtime is Over ''in 2007, ''Sucka Free ''in 2008, and ''Beam Me Up Scotty, ''in 2009. In 2009, she signed a recording contract with Young Money Entertainment. Life and career Minaj grew up in a troubled family also with a father that was addicted to drugs. She studied acting and singing at LaGaurdia High School in Upper West Side, Manhattan, New York City but similar to other famous stars, she started her singing career as a backup singer for many other artists. She was first spotted by the CEO of Young Money Records, Fendi on MySpace and was later invited for The Carter Edition of Young Money's own "The Come Up" DVD series. Her skills at rapping caught attention to Lil Wayne who later worked with her for a number of collaborations with his mixtapes. In April of 2007, Minaj relased her first ever mixtape "Playtime Is Over". Weezy did vocals on one of the songs. One year later, she made another mixtape "Sucka Free" which made her Female Artist of the Year at the Underground Music Awards. After her third mixtape "Beam Me Up Scotty" was relased it got many positive reviews from both BET and MTV, she made appearances in various joint tracks for studio albums from people like Ludacris, Usher, Mariah Carey, and also Weezy. Personal life Minaj is the only female rapper to be shown on Forbes' Hip Hop Cash Kings list. In 2011 she made her appearance for the first time ever on the list, making $6.5 million lasting from May 2010 to May 2011. In 2012 she became eigth on the list, making $15.5 million lasting from May 2011 to May 2012. Minaj went up to fourth on the list in 2013, making $29 million lasting from June 2012 to June 2013. In the disaster of Hurricane Sandy, Minaj gave $15,000 to the Food Bank For New York City and held a turkey dinner at her alma mater, PS 45. Minaj is a Christian, and states that after her father went to rehab and started going to church "he got saved and started changing his life." In July 2011 Minaj's cousin Nicholas Telemaque, was murdered close to his home in Brooklyn. She would reffer to him as "Champion": "Cause they killed my little cousin, Nicholas/ But my memory's only happy images." Critics have stated that Minaj's use of many sexual identities in her music, some thinking that she is biseuxal. Although she has stated that she does not have sex or date women, and she told ''Out ''magazine "I don't date men either". In an interview with ''Vibe ''she stated, "I just embrace all people of all lifestyles and I don't tell them they are bad people ... But I feel like people always wanna define me and I don't wanna be defined." References 1. ↑ http://www.aceshowbiz.com/celebrity/nicki_minaj/biography.html 2. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicki_Minaj Category:Personalities